Beauty mark

Supermodel Cindy Crawford is known for her beauty mark.

A beauty mark or beauty spot is a euphemism for a type of dark facial mark so named because such birthmarks are sometimes considered an attractive feature. Medically, such "beauty marks" are generally melanocytic nevus, more specifically the compound variant. Moles of this type may also be located elsewhere on the body, and may also be considered beauty marks if located on the face, shoulder, neck or breast. Artificial beauty marks have been fashionable in some periods.

Artificial beauty mark

Dual portrait of a black woman and a white woman, identities unknown, circa 1650, by an anonymous hand. The two women, who appear to be of equal standing, are wearing face patches, which were a fashion of the time. The painting is captioned "I black with white bespott y white with blacke this evil proceeds from thy proud hart then take her: Devill."

Artificial beauty marks, or mouches (Fr. flies), became fashionable in sixteenth-century France, and the fashion persisted into the eighteenth century. When the fashion spread to Spain and the Spanish Empire they were called a chiqueador.

A mouche was generally made of silk or velvet and was applied to the face as a form of make-up. They were kept in a patch box, or boîte à mouches (Fr. box of flies), and were often fanciful shapes such as hearts or stars. Besides their decorative value, the patches could hide smallpox scars or syphilis sores.

Alexander Pope's 1712 poem The Rape of the Lock mentions such patches as indicators of "secular love":

Here Files of Pins extend their shining Rows,
Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux.
Now awful Beauty puts on all its Arms;
The Fair each moment rises in her Charms,
Repairs her Smiles, awakens ev'ry Grace,
And calls forth all the Wonders of her Face;

A chiqueador on a lady's temple, detail of "Retrato de María Rosa de Rivera" by Pedro José Diaz, Lima, Peru, 1785.

The Monroe piercing has gained popularity in recent years as a flexible way of approximating a beauty mark. Natural beauty marks are also often enhanced with color from an eyebrow pencil or pen.

People with notable beauty marks

Many female sex symbols, actresses, and other celebrities are known for their beauty marks:

A Monroe piercing is a lip piercing placed off-center, above the upper lip, meant to resemble Marilyn Monroe's beauty mark.

Male actors known for their beauty marks include:

• George Hamilton, born 1939
• Robert De Niro, born 1943
• Joaquin Phoenix, born 1974
• Colin Farrell, born 1976
• Adam Driver, born 1983
• Tobey Maguire, born 1975

In fiction

In the conclusion of the book The Silence of the Lambs, the heroine Clarice Starling gains an artificial beauty mark when burnt gunpowder gets lodged in the flesh of her cheek. She retains this mark in the sequel novel Hannibal. This symbolism (along with Dr. Lecter's polydactylism) did not get carried over into the film.

Joan Crawford had a prominent beauty mark in her role as Sadie Thompson in Rain.

See also

• Bindi (decoration)
• Birthmark
• Freckles
• Melanocytic nevus
• Monroe piercing

Look up beauty spot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.